Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving a 25-year jail sentence for treason, has been transferred to a prison hospital, his wife Evgenia revealed on Friday.
Mr Kara-Murza, 42, who has British and Russian dual nationality, was jailed after repeatedly condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine and calling for Western sanctions against Moscow.
His allies have urged the new British Government to take immediate action to aid Mr Kara-Murza, warning he could “die in prison like Alexei Navalny” without help.
Bill Browder, 60, an anti-corruption campaigner and close friend of the Kara-Murzas, said: “Putin’s persecution of Vladimir Kara-Murza is one of the most serious situations facing a British national today.
“If he’s not released, he will most likely die in Prison like Alexei Navalny.
“We were pleased with the seriousness which Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron took Vladimirs case and we hope that David Lammy approaches this with as much or more energy as his predecessor.
“It would be a true travesty if Vladimir dies because he falls between the cracks of a change in government.”
Mr Kara-Murza’s transfer to hospital marks a significant decline in his wavering health.
He suffers from a nerve condition called polyneuropathy after surviving two poisoning attempts and has repeatedly voiced concerns about his health in prison.
His wife said he was transferred on Thursday evening to the prison hospital in Omsk, where he is incarcerated and his lawyers have been denied visitation rights.
In an exclusive interview with the Express in April, Ms Kara-Murza reiterated her concerns for his health which elevated after the death of Mr Navalny who died in an Arctic penal colony.
Mr Kara-Murza’s politically motivated jail term, handed down in April 2023 was the harshest such sentence since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Mr Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022, accused of spreading false information about the Russian armed forces.
Hours earlier, CNN had broadcast an interview in which he said Russia was run by “a regime of murderers”.
A former journalist, he was later charged with treason over speeches he gave about the war, including one to the Arizona House of Representatives in March 2022 in which he said Russian President Vladimir Putin was bombing Ukrainian homes, hospitals and schools.
Moscow says it does not deliberately target civilians however the UN Commission concluded that war crimes have been committed by Russian troops in Ukraine and expressed concern about the suffering of civilians.
Mr Kara-Murza lost an appeal against his conviction in May, the month he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for columns which he wrote from prison.
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
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